At least seven people were killed and four injured early yesterday when a river barge crashed into an interstate highway bridge about 65 miles southeast of Tulsa, OK, collapsing a 600-foot-long section of the four-lane highway and sending as many as nine cars and trucks tumbling into the Arkansas River, the authorities said.

Witnesses said several cars plummeted 60 feet to the fast-running river as the bridge gave way beneath them, but other vehicles, including at least two tractor-trailers and a horse trailer, careened off the precipice afterward, unable to stop in time. Some drivers could not see the gap ahead because it was on the side of the bridge's crest opposite them, witnesses said.

(New York Times, May 27 2002)